Leah A. Gates

Leah A. Gates, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and a Member of the Cancer Genomics and Epigenomics Program at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her research program investigates the intersection between metabolism, chromatin, and gene regulation with a particular focus on the intestine as a model system.

Dr. Gates earned her PhD in Molecular Biology from Baylor College of Medicine in 2017 and completed her postdoctoral training at The Rockefeller University. Her laboratory employs biochemical techniques, cell culture, organoid systems, and animal models to investigate how metabolite signaling to chromatin impacts cell and tissue function in health and disease.

Dr. Gates' research focuses on three primary areas: mechanisms of metabolite signaling to chromatin, the role of chromatin in intestinal cell fate determination, and metabolism-chromatin interactions in disease. Her work particularly examines how environmental cues such as diet and microbiota regulate the chromatin landscape and gene expression programs, with special interest in histone butyrylation. She investigates how chromatin regulates intestinal cell fate across different epithelial cell types that have distinct metabolic profiles depending on their location in the epithelium.

Analysis of Dr. Gates' publication record reveals a strong focus on the molecular mechanisms linking cellular metabolism to chromatin modifications and gene regulation. Her recent work demonstrates how microbiota-derived metabolites regulate histone modifications in the intestine, establishing direct connections between environmental factors, epigenetic regulation, and tissue function. Her research bridges basic biochemical mechanisms with physiological relevance in intestinal biology and cancer.

Dr. Gates has established herself as a leading researcher in the emerging field of metabolite-chromatin signaling, with publications in high-impact journals including Nature Metabolism, Nature, Cell Metabolism, and Cell Reports. Her work has been particularly influential in demonstrating how short-chain fatty acids from the microbiota regulate histone modifications in the mammalian intestine.

As principal investigator of the Gates Lab, she leads research investigating how the chromatin landscape integrates diverse cellular signals to regulate genome structure and biological functions through post-translational modifications on histone proteins. Her laboratory continues to explore how alterations in metabolism change cellular responses to environmental cues and impact tumorigenesis, with particular interest in how cancer-associated mutations in chromatin modifying enzymes alter the intersection between metabolism and chromatin.